For the past year and a half we've called our homestead "The Wagar Family Farm" yet we've not raised any type of livestock.  Don't get me wrong, we've been working very hard at getting our ducks in a row (no pun intended) in order to allow us to begin our dream of becoming semi-self-sufficient.

Well, the time has come, as of today, and arriving on or around the 19th of May, the Wagar Family Farm will be raising a flock (25) White Rock chickens.  I purchased these chicks online (as if I shop anywhere else) at  Murray McMurray Hatchery, a premier chicken and game foul hatchery located in Webster City, Iowa.  Per their website here is a short description of the White Rock Hens:

"White Rock pullets are outstanding for egg production the entire year, and are especially desirable through the cold winter months when lighter breeds slack off. They lay a brown egg of fine quality and size. The rapid growth, white, easy-to- dress feathers, and golden yellow skin of the cockerels of our strain make them equally desirable. Raise some for the frying pan or roaster. They are compact and well fleshed at almost any age. They are all big birds, hens reaching 6 to 7 lbs. and cocks 8 to 9 lbs. A flock of these pure white birds ranging busily over a grassy field is one of the prettiest sights you will ever see. Baby chicks are a creamy white and may show a touch of gray smokiness."

For those of you that are unfamiliar with how raising chickens works here is a quick overview:

Week 1-5: 
Chicks arrive and are corralled indoors under a heat lamp with plenty of water and food available to them. 

Week 6-24
The chickens are now ready to be placed out on pasture.  I will be blogging about a new mobile chicken coop that I will be building in the later weeks.  This coop will be surrounded by a mobile electric fence which will help to keep the predators out (i.e. coyotes, dogs, cats, etc).  As the names suggest all of these items are mobile so that we can move them around our property as needed.  They will continue to feed and roost in the coop, however no eggs will likely be produced.

Week 25- 104
The chickens should now begin to lay superb brown eggs for the family to enjoy.  On average starting between weeks 25 and 30 we should begin to received on average 1 egg per chicken per day.  Based on many factors (food, light, heat, water, etc) this should continue for about 2 years at which point the egg production typically drops off and most of the birds (unless they are still producing high quality eggs) will become chicken soup or stew meat, as they are no longer at the quality needed for grilling etc.



What does this all mean?
By Christmas of 2008, the Wagar family should be one step closer to becoming self-sufficient by no longer needing to purchase eggs from either the grocery store or other local farmers.  In addition, each year after we will plan to purchase an additional 25 chicks allowing for an endless supply of farm fresh eggs, and although we eat a lot of eggs, we should be able to begin selling to other local families who are looking to purchase a superior product, compared to grocery stores, for their families.

For more information on large-scale hatcheries, watch the video below.


 
 

Hopefully all of you are enjoying as nice of weather as we are here in southern Indiana, and all of us know what happens when the weather gets nice…..SPRING CLEANING.

For the Wagar farm, spring cleaning means a few different things.  First and foremost, spring cleaning this year meant that we would for the first time have garbage pickup, YAHOO!!!  You see, this may not seem like an extravigance to you, but when you live in the middle of nowhere, getting garbage pickup is better than having a gormet kitchen.  This means no more dogs/racoons/cats digging through the trash, spreading it all over our 5 acres. 

Secondly, spring cleaning means revamping the driveway.  As you probably know, gravel driveways deterorate after a period of time  (which in our case means about every three years.  Needless to say with all of the rain we have had all winter, we’re down to dirt and mud.  That will all change this weekend when the first of three 21 ton loads of gravel are going to be dropped off.  That’s right, after the whole shabang is completed we’ll have spread 63 tons of gravel down in order to recreate our driveway.  Now it sounds like (and is) a lot of gravel, but when you compare prices it’s cheap compated to the alternatives of blacktop or concrete (the blacktop estimate came in at $3500.00 ouch!!) at only $600.00 total.

Third, spring cleaning means tractor and yard tool maintenance, which in this case meant replacing the three mower blades off of my antique Woods RM-59 3-point hitch mower.  Now this sounds much easier than it was…. Let’s just say it took about 3 hours, two men, a chain, breaker bar, and a 15/16 socket.  Nonetheless, we won and the blades are off…now I just have to go drop the $55.00 to purchase and install the new ones.

All in all, it’s springtime, we’re loving it and doing all of these projects prepares our minds, bodies and equipment for all of the work ahead of us.

Praise God for warmer days more sunlight.

 

 

Well, it’s with great joy and praise to God that I write all of you today. 

As many of you know, Jennifer and I have been planning to start our family farm for the past few years, but our financial ability to move forward with our dream had not yet caught up.  As you have read in my previous blog entries, we had planned on this changing this year with our tax return and a bonus from work, and although both of these did come through in greater amounts than we had expected, God has a different plan for us… 

You see, God has placed it upon both Jennifer and my heart to take the financial blessing that He has provided us and instead of purchasing more with it and starting our farm (by our plan), we we’re both convicted by the Holy Spirit (neither of us knew each other was being convicted of the same thing until we both talked to each other two nights ago) to instead take one more step to financial freedom and payoff our Van (God’s plan). 

Although some may see this as a potential setback for our dream, we have complete faith in our awesome God, that He has better timing that we do for our dreams.   And as an example of this, he is blessing us with the ability to start small and obtain chickens for this year.  As for the rest of our animals, etc, we’ll just have to see what God’s plans are and what timing He sets forth for us.

So today, please join with the Wagar family as we give glory and praise to God for His wonderful guidance and leadership of our family.

Thanks be to God!